GBC All Members Meeting 2019
Please join us for our 2019 General Membership Meeting.
Meeting Agenda
- Introductions
- Overview of caucus
- Handling stress in the Trump Era
- Black History Month
- Women's History Month
- Election 2020
- Volunteering in 2020
- Outreach to American organizations abroad
Call times in various time zones:
- Vancouver- 5:00
- Toronto-8:00
- Washington DC - 8:00
- UK - 13:00
- Berlin - 14:00
- Greece - 15:00
- Shanghai- 20:00
- Japan - 21:00
- Australia - 22:00
- Hong Kong- 22:00
After you RVSP, you will receive the connection information in an email. Please save this email.
Official DACN Black Caucus Opening Brunch
Dear White People Synopsis
A social satire that follows the stories of four Black students at an Ivy League college where controversy breaks out over a popular but offensive Black-face party thrown by White students. With tongue planted firmly in cheek, the film explores racial identity in acutely-not-post-racial America while weaving a universal story of forging one's unique path in the world.
GBC 2020 Poet Laureate Search
The Global Black Caucus seeks to raise the consciousness of our current and potential constituency. To that end, we are looking for our first Poet Laureate (volunteer) for the 2020 election cycle. The Poet Laureate will be selected annually for a term that lasts from January to December. Poetry selections will be featured on the GBC page of the DA website throughout the selected Poet Laureate's term.
The person selected would:
- Create a Poetry Series to explore societal issues and the 2020 elections through poetry's focused lens to describe “truth,” or at the very least, “truths,” in our world.
- They will be called upon to write poetry on significant occasions and throughout the election season.
- Poems should also encourage people to vote, volunteer, or donate.
- It would be great if the person selected would like to make multimedia/spoken word videos or other visual media.
- Occasionally, meet with the GBC Steering Committee.
The poet must be a member of Democrats Abroad and a member of the GBC. Anyone who supports universal, unconditional human rights can join the GBC.
Read moreHere's How to Read the Mueller Report
It is really important for everyone to read the Mueller Report. Although the report is redacted, there is more than enough information to understand what happened.
After the 22-month probe, Mueller broke down his findings into two parts. Volume I of the report concludes that Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election occurred "in a sweeping and systematic fashion" and "violated U.S. criminal law". Volume II of the report addresses the obstruction of justice.
Key points of the Mueller Report:
- Mueller did not exonerate the President of the United States of obstruction of justice,
- Obstruction of justice is a serious crime that strikes at the core of our justice system,
- And the Constitution points to Congress to take action to hold the President accountable.
Listed below are just a few options for reading the Mueller Report. There are many sources where you can obtain a copy of the report. Please use the options you are comfortable with. The most important thing is that you read the report.
Read moreTeam Up with the Global Black Caucus
Connect with the Global Black Caucus:
Find out how to start a Black Caucus in your country committee here.
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GBC Summer 2019 Reading List
Summer is a time for drift, for lapping waters, sipped cocktails, and rambling walks. One day it’s lobster rolls and white wine. The next day could be Andalusian gazpacho and Dos Equis. The weekend might bring Mul Naengmyeon (cold noodle soup) and Soju. And as your choice of food and entertainment varies with the temperature and your ebbing and flowing lethargy, so may your taste in books.
The lengthening days and piercing sunshine of summertime is the perfect time to crack open that book you might not otherwise read, you may have forgotten about, or that is low on your decades-long list of “must-reads.” And in this spirit, below you will find ten quirky, fun, intriguing memoirs and novels to while away a few of those precious summer hours. Enjoy!
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Mycroft Holmes by Kareem Abdul-Jabar Paperback: 336 pages |
Fight off a sense of slacker-hood as you dive into this delightful mystery by screenwriter Anna Waterhouse and beloved former NBA star Kareem Abdul-Jabar. Mycroft Holmes is the lesser known but equally brilliant older brother of the infamous Sherlock, and we are introduced to him at the beginning of his illustrious investigative career. Abdul-Jabar also introduces us to Cyrus Douglas, a black man of Trinidadian descent, an intrepid cigar shop owner, and Mycroft’s best friend. The two men head to Cyrus’ homeland to solve a mystery which includes strange disappearances and spirits that lure children to their deaths; their bodies found drained of blood.
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Born a Crime by Trevor Noah Paperback: 304 pages Publisher: Spiegel & Grau ISBN-10: 0399588191 |
I approached this memoir with light expectations. Noah is charming and funny on his cable talk show the Daily Show, and although bright, I wasn’t expecting James McBride. But I was pleasantly surprised. “Born a Crime” is funny and poignant and feminist as AF. Noah loves his country and his mama, and he lovingly writes about both as he offers sharp tidbits of South African history along with wild stories of his childhood as a poor, mixed-race child under Apartheid.
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Earth Day: Colonialism’s role in the overexploitation of natural resources
Earth Day: Colonialism's role in the overexploitation of natural resources
Joseph McQuade, University of Toronto
We are currently experiencing the worst environmental crisis in human history, including a “biological annihilation” of wildlife and dire risks for the future of human civilization.
The scale of that environmental devastation has increased drastically in recent years. Mostly to blame are anthropogenic, or human-generated factors, including the burning of fossil fuels like coal and oil.
Other industries like gem and mineral mining also destroy the world’s ecological sustainability, leading to deforestation and the destruction of natural habitats. Much of this traumatic exploitation of natural resources traces its origins to early colonialism.
Colonialists saw “new” territories as places with unlimited resources to exploit, with little consideration for the long-term impacts. They exploited what they considered to be an “unending frontier” at the service of early modern state-making and capitalist development.
To understand our current ecological catastrophe, described as “a world of worsening food shortages and wildfires, and a mass die-off of coral reefs as soon as 2040,” we need to look at the role of colonialism at its roots.
This exploration is not a debate over whether colonialism was “good” or “bad”. Instead, it is about understanding how this global process helped create the world we currently inhabit.
Read more3 Things Schools Should Teach About America’s History of White Supremacy
Noelle Hurd, University of Virginia
When it comes to how deeply embedded racism is in American society, blacks and whites have sharply different views.
For instance, 70 percent of whites believe that individual discrimination is a bigger problem than discrimination built into the nation’s laws and institutions. Only 48 percent of blacks believe that is true.
Many blacks and whites also fail to see eye to eye regarding the use of blackface, which dominated the news cycle during the early part of 2019 due to a series of scandals that involve the highest elected leaders in Virginia, where I teach.
The donning of blackface happens throughout the country, particularly on college campuses. Recent polls indicate that 42 percent of white American adults either think blackface is acceptable or are uncertain as to whether it is.
One of the most recent blackface scandals has involved Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, whose yearbook page from medical school features someone in blackface standing alongside another person dressed in a Ku Klux Klan robe. Northam has denied being either person. The more Northam has tried to defend his past actions, the clearer it has become to me how little he appears to know about fundamental aspects of American history, such as slavery. For instance, Northam referred to Virginia’s earliest slaves as “indentured servants”. His ignorance has led to greater scrutiny of how he managed to ascend to the highest leadership position in a racially diverse state with such a profound history of racism and white supremacy.
Read more2019 Black History Month Film Recommendations
It’s Black History Month, which means there’s really no better time to see a great film that captures the diverse narratives of black people. Currently, there are so many excellent films about the black experience/black history, it's hard to choose. We've curated a selection of films in many genres, there is something for most tastes. Choose from documentaries, biographical/historical dramas, fantasy/sci-fi/horror, LGBT themes, and sports figures.
Be sure to watch Southside with You. The film chronicles the summer 1989 afternoon when the future President of the United States, Barack Obama, wooed his future First Lady, Michelle Obama, on a first date across Chicago's South Side.
Consider hosting a watch party during Black History Month.
The films listed below are in no particular order and most are on streaming services.
Read moreBook Recommendations for Black History Month 2019
Every traveler knows that a book can be your best friend, your guide, and your sanity-saver. Living abroad, even more so than a pleasant jaunt away from home, can be as challenging and scary as it is exhilarating. And books often help the globetrotter step back, recharge, learn something new in order to plan the next adventure or simply appreciate the adventure they are already on. A good book, fiction or nonfiction, can also teach a traveler or expat the history or culture of the place they now call home.
In this spirit of adventure, this quarter’s Global Black Caucus booklist is comprised of old and new gems---fiction and nonfiction that take us from Hawaii to Mississippi and beyond. We hope these books will inspire, confound, and perhaps help you plan your next escapade. We invite you to turn the page!
The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism
Edward E. Baptist
Paperback: 560 pages
Publisher: Basic Books
ISBN-10: 9780465049660
An Associate Professor of History at Cornell University, Baptist uses all his persuasive research and writing skills to challenge the myth that the enslaved labor of Africans and the American Negro did not fundamentally create the United States of America as we know it today.
At times charming but mostly enraging, The Half Has Never Been Told takes on the myth, manufactured during and post-antebellum, that American slavery was somehow isolated from the social and economic formation of the United States. Baptist convincingly argues that enslaving an entire people and using their forced labor was essential to the economic prosperity of the fledgling country, the hinge which allowed it to become an economic and cultural powerhouse in a breathtakingly short amount of time and not, as slave owners, businessmen, politicians, historians, and everyday people proffered, simply a by-blow at best and incidental at worse.
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